Oscar Piastri was showing promising signs of getting his maiden F1 pole position at Zandvoort. The Aussie was matching Lando Norris to the thousandth of a second for the large part, but could not sustain his pace in Q3. Norris beat him and Max Verstappen by a comfortable margin of 0.356 seconds. Piastri credited his teammate’s efforts and denied any theories of him being less comfortable in the newly upgraded MCL38.
Speaking at the post-qualifying presser, he said, “No. I mean, to be honest, the car feels very, very similar. I think, you know, we’ve improved the car like a second and a half since last year or something crazy, and it doesn’t feel that different.”
“I think simply Lando did a good job in the last run of Q3, and I didn’t do as good a job as I should have. So, yeah, I think it’s just simply down to that.”, the 23-year-old added.
What a Qualifying session!!!
Will give it everything tomorrow. #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/9fZ9aien5g
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 24, 2024
Piastri had to settle for P3 in the final classification, about half a second adrift of Norris and a tenth and a half behind Verstappen. His final flying lap in Q3 wasn’t up to the mark while both Norris and Verstappen improved on their banker lap times.
The good thing for Piastri is that McLaren seems to have taken another step up in performance with the new upgrades. Thus, he has a solid race car underneath to fight back from third at the Dutch GP. However, the Aussie will have to pull up his socks to match the leading duo’s pace and fight for the win.
Will Piastri and Norris fight each other for the Dutch GP win?
If McLaren experiences a similar pace advantage to the Hungarian GP, Norris and Piastri could once again have a duel for the race win. Now, the Woking team has given them a free hand to fight, but when things got confusing in Budapest, they had to deploy team orders to sort the situation.
While that was done to help Piastri win his maiden race, the situation would be different at Zandvoort. Even the Aussie driver knows that Norris is chasing Verstappen for the drivers’ championship with a 78-point deficit. So, the Briton needs his assistance as much as possible and an internal battle won’t help his championship challenge.
Moreover, McLaren also needs both drivers to work together for their constructors’ championship ambition. They can’t be stepping on each other’s toes to fight for individual wins, as it could lead to McLaren losing points to Red Bull.
Ideally, McLaren would want a 1-2 finish in Zandvoort with Norris taking the win. This would help them gain points in both championships.
